Anti-abortion violence negates pro-life goals

I must commend the News & Record for its Oct. 6 editorial concerning the negative impact of the extremist fringes in the abortion debate.

Though I am adamantly opposed to the current legal status of abortion as birth control, I am always deeply disturbed by acts of violence against abortuaries and abortionists. I am especially troubled when these acts result in death or injury. My fervent hope is that every criminal responsible for such acts is caught, prosecuted, convicted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law. Terrorism, murder, and arson are horrific crimes and are not appropriate expressions of political protest.

Anti-abortion extremist violence is the absolute negation of the work and goals of the pro-life movement. We oppose violence against all innocent human beings. We recognize the preborn child as an innocent human life deserving the protection that such status demands. We know that violence does nothing to secure the rights of the preborn. We reject violence as immoral and ineffectual.

In a tragic irony, sporadic anti-abortion violence conceals the violence that occurs daily within its target. Every abortion is the violent destruction of an innocent human life. Throughout our country, more than 3,000 children are the daily victims of this concealed abortion clinic violence.

I look forward to the day when our country is no longer plagued by misguided terrorists who betray a noble and righteous cause and violence against more than one million preborn children annually is no longer called a "right."